882.20/431
The Minister in Liberia (Walton) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 27.]
Sir: I have the honor to make the following observations:
At so momentous a period in international relationships, Liberia’s strategic geographical position on the West Coast of Africa invests it with added importance politically and economically. The contributory factors to this metamorphosis have been: (1) A narrowing world due, in the main, to the remarkable development of aerial transportation and aerial communication; (2) revolutionary social changes in Europe and Asia; (3) the aggressive challenging of the status quo in the Mediterranean; (4) the promotion of more mutual inter-American relations; (5) envisagement of Liberia as a fertile field for the exploitation in the areas of trade, agriculture and mineralogy.
In regard to its geography Liberia is the halfway point on the west African Coast. Liberia is situated midway between Europe and South America. Liberia is situated approximately midway between Europe and South Africa.
Taking into account the Machiavellian international policy so vigorously pursued nowadays by autocratic powers, it is obvious that distance, even when measured in terms of thousands of miles, does not preclude the United States from finding it imperative to give immediate attention to political and economic considerations which may inevitably have a direct bearing on its future welfare.
It is no cry of the alarmist to assert that for any totalitarian state to gain a strong foothold on the West Coast of Africa would undoubtedly menace the good neighbor policy of the United States in South America; and that the establishment of an airplane base, a naval base, a radio or a cable station by either Germany or Italy, particularly Germany, would prove detrimental to Pan-America and its ideologies.
[Page 557]The esteem in which Germany holds Liberia as a strategic point of communication between Europe and South America was clearly indicated shortly before the World War. In 1911, toward the close of President Arthur Barclay’s administration, the Liberian Government granted a Dutch company a cable concession which was subsequently sold to a German concern, commonly known as the German-South American Cable Company. In 1912, at the beginning of President Howard’s administration, the company opened a cable station at Monrovia. As many as forty German employees were quartered in the company’s local community house. Liberians were regularly employed. Seven men worked on each shift. The station was operated throughout the day and night.
Monrovia was in constant touch with Pernambuco, the South American station; also Emden, Germany, Teneriffe, Canary Islands; Lome, Togoland, and Duala, Cameroons. During the World War when Liberia joined the Allies, the German cable station was forced to close. In retaliation, a German submarine bombarded the French cable station at the Liberian capital.
Italy’s rise to a dominant and aggressively articulate role in the Mediterranean has evoked misgivings as to the future availability of the Suez Canal at all times for shipping. The United States enjoys a large, profitable export trade with South Africa. If the Suez Canal were blockaded there would remain the sea route to South Africa via the West African Coast. That is, if the democracies do not permit a fait accompli by totalitarian states in the political penetration of the Canary Islands, or some point of vantage on the West Coast of Africa.
So interrelated are the economic and political issues involved which have cast Liberia in a principal role in this drama of “Preparedness in Africa,” (which should mean so much to the economic progress and political security of both the United States and the African republic) that one issue cannot be seriously considered without the other.
With the development of American overseas trade with Africa, our merchant ships, in the event of war, would need protection. Liberia is the logical port in this region for a naval base to safeguard our sea lanes.
Apart from the utilization of Monrovia as a naval base, an airplane base or a base for aerial communication, it should be an ideal location for the storage of cargo consigned for transshipment either northward or southward. To American shipping, Monrovia might gradually assume a maritime status similar to that of Dakar to French shipping, or that of Freetown, Accra and Lagos to British shipping.
Because it was founded under the aegis of the American Colonization Society, with the active cooperation of the Federal Government, Liberia has been regarded more or less by Americans as a sentimental [Page 558] attachment. In the light of the incredible occurrences transpiring today in the field of internationalism, it would appear that the future political and economic interests of both Liberia and the United States can more effectively be served by Americans combining traditional sentiment with a more realistic appreciation for Liberia’s wealth of potentialities.1a
Respectfully yours,
A memorandum attached to this despatch in the files reads as follows:
↩“Comment made by Division of Near Eastern Affairs on March 2, 1939, on despatch no. 251, January 3, 1939, received from the American Legation at Monrovia:
“Your observations have been noted by the Secretary and the Under Secretary, as well as by other officers of the Department, and are being brought to the attention of the Navy, as of possible interest to it. We assume, of course, that you would not have offered these suggestions, however tentatively, without considering Liberia’s sensibilities; and that the Liberian Government has made its anxiety so plain in regard to the menace of aggression by certain European powers that it would be willing to risk the alternative of virtual American domination along the lines you mention.”